Amanpour’s Parting Advice Was ‘Truthful, Not Neutral.’ That Was Always the Problem.
CNN's chief international anchor is leaving after 43 years, weeks after new owners took over. Her farewell motto sums up what her critics have said for decades.
Christiane Amanpour spent 43 years at CNN. On her way out the door Monday, she left her colleagues five words to live by: "Remember: always be truthful, not neutral."
Her admirers heard a badge of honor. A lot of Americans heard a confession. Neutral was supposed to be the job.
The exit
CNN chief Mark Thompson broke the news in a staff memo. Amanpour will cut her CNN International show, "Amanpour," to once a week early in 2027. The program ends in May, and she leaves CNN at the end of June, according to his memo, which Deadline published. Her PBS show, "Amanpour & Company," ends this year, per NBC News.
"After many months of thought and a few sleepless nights, I have decided to separate from CNN, my partner of 43 fantastic years!" she wrote, in a statement Deadline published in full. She is 68.
On air, she made a point of her independence. "That's especially important today as we face unprecedented pressures from all sides, political, financial and also from the rising dangers in the field," she said in her video announcement. It announcement had drawn more than 12,000 likes on X by Monday evening:
“An update from me...” Christiane Amanpour announces she is leaving CNN after 43 years (Christiane Amanpour)
— @amanpour View on 𝕏
She saw the new owners coming
The timing is hard to miss. Skydance closed its roughly $110 billion takeover of CNN's parent, Warner Bros. Discovery, earlier this month, putting CNN and CBS News under one roof with David Ellison at the top, Reuters reported. Thompson stays on, reporting to Ellison and co-CEO Ynon Kreiz.
Amanpour had already said what she thought of her new boss. "I'm concerned based on what's happened to the other things that he's taken over already, like CBS News, right?" she said in May, citing "this ideological realignment of CBS and the destruction, potentially, of '60 Minutes'" (The Guardian).
Ellison put Bari Weiss in charge of CBS News. What Amanpour called a realignment, conservatives have called a long-overdue correction. Thompson said he and Amanpour had been "discussing it for some months," and neither has tied her exit to the new owners. Her critics didn't need them to.
"Not neutral," in practice
Amanpour has never hidden the philosophy. "Both-siderism — on the one hand, on the other hand — is not always objectivity. It does not get you to the truth," she told Columbia Journalism School graduates in 2023 (Variety).
In that same speech, she said she "respectfully" disagreed with CNN airing a town hall with Donald Trump, then the Republican front-runner. "For me, of course, the fact that the American people voted three times against Trump and Trumpism — 2018, 2020, 2022 — also speaks volumes," she said, Variety reported. In 2024, the American people voted for him.
The "truth" kept landing on the same side. In November 2020, she compared the Trump presidency to Kristallnacht and walked it back after an outcry (AP). In 2023, she apologized for calling the murder of a British-Israeli rabbi's wife and daughters a "shootout" (Times of Israel).
Last October, on the day Hamas freed the last 20 living Israeli hostages, she said on CNN that "they're probably being treated better than the average Gazan, because they are the pawns and the chips that Hamas had." Later that day she called the remark "insensitive and wrong," TheWrap reported.
One more trip to Doha
Before she goes, Amanpour is on the bill for CNN's "Global Perspectives" forum in Doha, starting Oct. 29, alongside Wolf Blitzer. Qatar, home to Hamas's leadership, is the summit's primary financial backer, the Washington Free Beacon reported Monday. CNN quietly scrubbed agenda copy declaring that "Qatar has built something rare — a small country with an outsized role in how the world works." The network didn't respond to the Free Beacon's questions.
Media critics noticed the farewell motto, too. NewsBusters' Tim Graham put it plainly:
On her CNN International show, Christiane Amanpour made her statement on video that she is “separating” from CNN, but rooting for its “independent journalism” with her little motto “Truthful, Not Neutral.” (Tim Graham)
— @TimJGraham View on 𝕏
The umpire problem
Thompson's memo recalled that early in her career, one of her bosses told her she didn't have what it took to hold any on-air role at all, per Deadline. She proved him wrong. Talent was never the complaint.
Think of an umpire with perfect eyesight who announces before the first pitch that he isn't neutral. Nobody questions his vision. Everybody questions the strike zone.
That is the legacy Amanpour chose to underline on her way out. CNN's new owners now get to decide whether the next generation of anchors takes her advice.
Sources
- Washington Free Beacon — CNN Is Caught Quietly Deleting Sycophantic Language About Hamas-Loving Qatar Ahead of Network’s For-Profit ‘Global Forum’
- Deadline — Christiane Amanpour To Leave CNN In 2027 After 43 Years With Network
- NBC News — CNN’s Christiane Amanpour to depart network after 43 years
- Reuters (via Investing.com) — Christiane Amanpour to leave CNN after four decades as Ellison era begins
- Variety — Christiane Amanpour Slams CNN Donald Trump Town Hall
- TheWrap — Christiane Amanpour Apologizes for Israeli Hostages Comments
- X (@amanpour) — An update from me...
- X (@TimJGraham) — Amanpour's 'little motto, Truthful, Not Neutral'
- The Guardian — CNN legend Christiane Amanpour expresses concern about Ellison takeover (May 6, 2026)
- Associated Press — CNN's Amanpour regrets equating Trump with Nazi assault (Nov. 2020)
- The Times of Israel — CNN anchor Amanpour apologizes for calling terror attack on Dee family a 'shootout' (May 2023)